{"id":29442,"date":"2026-04-09T18:25:54","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T22:25:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/?p=29442"},"modified":"2026-04-09T18:25:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T22:25:54","slug":"i-am-no-elle-woods-jr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/?p=29442","title":{"rendered":"i am no elle woods jr."},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi,\u00a0<\/span>I’m<\/span>\u00a0looking to apply as a non-degree student at\u00a0<\/span>U of<\/span>\u00a0T to strengthen my GPA for law school. I got my undergraduate degree in business in the UK, I graduated with high\u00a0<\/span>honours<\/span>\u00a0but WES converts my grades back to a 3.5, so needing to strengthen my GPA for law school. What is non-degree studying actually like, do you have to take a full course load or just a few\u00a0<\/span>courses.<\/span>\u00a0Also, does it matter what courses and level you take\u00a0<\/span>if<\/span>\u00a0just trying to strengthen\u00a0<\/span>gpa<\/span>\u00a0for law school or\u00a0<\/span>grad<\/span>\u00a0school?<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

heyyo,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

this is a great question, it\u2019s super interesting to hear from askers not in the more \u201ccommon\u201d fields of undergrad artsci, eng, rotman, etc. (ofc i love you all too. i mean, I’m one of you)!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

you’ve probably already checked it out, but in case you haven\u2019t, <\/span>there\u2019s\u00a0a page about non-degree studies on the\u00a0artsci\u00a0website.<\/span><\/a> tbh i didn\u2019t know all too much about how the program works myself but reading the page was pretty helpful. turns out you don\u2019t need to do a full course load. phew.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

i also have to admit that i’m not at all knowledgeable about law school, i can\u2019t say i know much more about it than the average undergrad. which is to say, almost nothing.<\/span> i am no elle woods jr.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

however, i tried to do a little but of research for you, and from what i gathered the consensus was that they care more about your GPA than individual courses. so i don\u2019t <\/span>think\u00a0<\/span><\/i>what courses and levels you take matter all that much. from my limited knowledge, it\u2019s more your gpa and lsat scores that count. get studyin.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

as for grad school, i think it may be a bit different. i actually attended an event about how grad school admissions work and the relevance of classes <\/span>does <\/span><\/i>matter. i’m not 100% clear on how much the difficulty aspect matters though. i do know that they go absolutely crazy for \u201cimprovement\u201d though, so if you can show that the grades you get in non-degree courses are a step up from your last year (and you had a general upward trajectory during your undergrad) that might help you out. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

the only thing i’d warn you about if you wanna tackle \u201charder\u201d courses (ie 300+ level) you may need some prereqs. you should <\/span>check out the academic calendar<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to see if\u00a0that\u2019ll\u00a0be a problem for the classes you want to take.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

anyways, best of luck with your postgrad\u00a0applications and if you do decide to take some courses at\u00a0uoft,\u00a0i\u00a0wish you\u00a0<\/span>extra\u00a0<\/span><\/i>luck with that!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

cheers,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

aska<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi,\u00a0I’m\u00a0looking to apply as a non-degree student at\u00a0U of\u00a0T to strengthen my GPA for law school. I got my undergraduate degree in business in the UK, I graduated with high\u00a0honours\u00a0but WES converts my grades back to a 3.5, so needing to strengthen my GPA for law school. What is non-degree studying actually like, do you have to take a full course load or just a few\u00a0courses.\u00a0Also, does it matter what courses and level you take\u00a0if\u00a0just trying to strengthen\u00a0gpa\u00a0for law school or\u00a0grad\u00a0school?\u00a0 heyyo,\u00a0 this is a great question, it\u2019s super interesting to hear from askers not in the more \u201ccommon\u201d fields of undergrad artsci, eng, rotman, etc. (ofc i love you all too. i mean, I’m one of you)!\u00a0 you’ve probably already checked it out, but in case you haven\u2019t, there\u2019s\u00a0a page about non-degree studies on the\u00a0artsci\u00a0website. tbh i didn\u2019t know all too much about how the program works myself but reading the page was pretty helpful. turns out you don\u2019t need to do a full course load. phew. i also have to admit that i’m not at all knowledgeable about law school, i can\u2019t say i know much more about it than the average undergrad. which is to say, almost nothing. i am no elle woods jr. however, i tried to do a little but of research for you, and from what i gathered the consensus was that they care more about your GPA than individual courses. so i don\u2019t think\u00a0what courses and levels you take matter all that much. from my limited knowledge, it\u2019s more your gpa and lsat scores that count. get studyin. as for grad school, i think it may be a bit different. i actually attended an event about how grad school admissions work and the relevance of classes does matter. i’m not 100% clear on how much the difficulty aspect matters though. i do know that they go absolutely crazy for \u201cimprovement\u201d though, so if you can show that the grades you get in non-degree courses are a step up from your last year (and you had a general upward trajectory during your undergrad) that might help you out. \u00a0 the only thing i’d warn you about if you wanna tackle \u201charder\u201d courses (ie 300+ level) you may need some prereqs. you should check out the academic calendar\u00a0to see if\u00a0that\u2019ll\u00a0be a problem for the classes you want to take.\u00a0\u00a0 anyways, best of luck with your postgrad\u00a0applications and if you do decide to take some courses at\u00a0uoft,\u00a0i\u00a0wish you\u00a0extra\u00a0luck with that!\u00a0 cheers,\u00a0 aska\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,144,165],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grad-school","category-law-school","category-non-degree"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29442"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29444,"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29442\/revisions\/29444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}